User Sub Gold

The US guards a lot of gold, but owns very little

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has the world’s largest stockpile of gold. There's 550,000 bars buried under Manhattan. That’s $203.3 billion worth of gold! Just 2-5% of it is owned by the U.S. though. Than means the U.S. is trusted to gaurd more gold than it owns. Huh.

Let's coat planets in gold!

If you had all the gold ever mined, you could coat the Earth in 1.7 picometers. That's really thin. Its actually thinner than a single gold atom. So we haven't mined enough to plate the earth in gold. (special thanks to strudelman and NSFWinators on this fact.)

Shoveling driveways could be a lucrative business opportunity if the earth was coated in gold though. You could save up and get that pool table you've always wanted! Have your friends over and play some pool. Except for Gary. Gary is a jerk.

I'd kill for a gold pool ball. Just sayin'.

Gold is more dense than lead! If you had a pool ball made of solid gold, it would weigh 16 ounces (1 pound.) That's 3 times as much as a normal pool ball. A solid gold pool ball would be worth $18,500 today (March 2015.) You couldn't play pool with it though because.......

....gold is very soft! You can mold it with your bare hands. A gold pool ball would be dented on the first break. Jewelry makers create pieces from gold alloys instead. (An alloy is just one metal made from a mix of different metals.)

1 karat of gold means that 1/24th of the item is made of gold, so 24 karat gold is 100% pure gold. This is why you don't see 24 karat jewlery; you could crush it in your hand. You'd be better off with a low karat pool ball.

Please don't buy this.

Mankind has decided gold is valuable because it is rare, and is pretty chemically inert. This means it won't quickly errode or rust away like other materials. One ounce of gold is worth around $1,100 right now (though that changes all the time.)

It would cost around $700 (.6 ounces of gold) to ship 100 pounds of gold via Fed-Ex overnight. You could afford it though, 100 pounds of gold is worth $1.8 million. You could use that 100 pounds to buy a famous painting titled Voice of Fire. What a steal right!?

Since the planet isn't coated in gold, you can't shovel driveways for it. Hmm... maybe you could get that 100 pounds of gold by harvesting junk electronics?

You have heard gold is used in eletronics right? No? Ok. Well it is. This is for... reasons.

Gold is the 4th best conductor of electricity. Gold disperses heat well. Gold can be made much thinner than copper. Gold is easier to recycle than other materials and is less harmful on the environment. Gold is quite chemically inert, and won't react with other materials in a computer.

So your computer is basically a gold mine! Just kidding. There's around $9 of gold in most PC's.

Gold is also used in medicine. Historically it was used to treat nervous system problems, impotence, and alchoholism. Impotence and alchoholism, seriously. Goldschläger is such an ironic liquor. Gold has modern day benefits used for anti-inflamatory purposes such as arthritits.

Cat Tax!!!

Iridium: http://imgur.com/gallery/O95Wp
Platinum: http://imgur.com/a/IMt7Z
Silver: http://imgur.com/gallery/Efm0T
Copper: http://imgur.com/gallery/YG1NY